The folks at Cogswell Motors said goodbye Friday to Linda Oliver, who had been an important cog in the dealership’s wheel for 35 years.

Keith B. Cogswell said Oliver would be missed by everyone and could never be replaced.

“Everyone is going to miss her,” he said. “She’s been here since I was 14. It just won’t be the same without her.”

Oliver joined Cogswell in 1977 after working three years at Sears and three years at a medical clinic in Dardanelle.

She said that working in collections wasn’t her “cup of tea.”

Oliver went to the unemployment office to inquire about jobs in the accounting field and was sent to Cogswell Motors to interview.

She said after interviewing with the office manager, she spoke with Keith Cogswell Jr.

“Mr. Cogswell told me he thought I would fit in fine with the group, and I was hired the next day,” Oliver said. “Through the years I worked at various jobs and took online accounting courses and went to Houston for Cogswell to learn more also. Mostly, it was on the job training.”

She recalled the time when two of the salesmen had not turned in commission form and she was finishing payroll. Oliver’s announcement over the paging system served as more than a gentle reminder that day.

“I needed their reports so I got on the pager and said their names and asked ‘Do y’all not have any commissions sheets?’ I still tease them that I made them better salesmen,” Oliver said. “They never missed another week after that. Of course, they still tease me about the time I embarrassed them.”

That good-natured teasing worked both ways at Cogswell. Sometimes Oliver was on the receiving end.

Salesman Ken Langford remembered the time that Johnny Story was doing a live remote at Cogswell with the sales department. Langford said that throughout the day Oliver made several comments to the salesmen about the country twang of their voices on-air.

“We decided that since she had given us grief that she should have some in turn,” Langford said, trying not to laugh. “We asked Johnny to walk down the hall towards the office where Linda was and make it appear he was live and doing interviews. As Linda turned to see what was going on she found Johnny’s microphone about 6 inches from her face and Johnny said ‘What’s your name and what is your position here at Cogswell Motors?’ Her face turned several different colors and she made some incoherent noises that made no sense.”

Langford said Oliver didn’t bother the staff the rest of the day.

Oliver said those are just two examples of what makes working at Cogswell so special — the family atmosphere.

She said the people at Cogswell are just like family to her and that she loved her job.

That family sentiment was expressed by every employee at the reception and even by Oliver’s two daughters Amy Rodney and April Loretz, who surprised Oliver by attending the retirement party.

Laura Drown said that Oliver was like a mother to everyone at Cogswell and that the staff hadn’t been able to look at Oliver without breaking down the past few weeks.

Oliver’s daughters said they didn’t remember a time their mother didn’t work at Cogswell and the dealership was a home away from home for them also.

“We (April and her sister Amy) spent a lot of time down there,” Loretz said. “Now when we come home, our kids go there. She is a second mom to everyone down there. I think she has a lot of adopted children and grandchildren.”

Oliver was surprised by the visit from her daughters. She said she came into the living room Thursday evening after taking a shower to find both daughters. Oliver said she cried.

“We knew how much this meant to mom and we worked hard to surprise her,” Rodney, the younger daughter, said. “Mom is the most kindest, generous person I’ve ever known in my life. We knew she wouldn’t be expecting to see us because we had her thinking we wouldn’t be able to come.”

Loretz said she even sent flowers to her mother on Thursday to add to the illusion the two sisters were unable to attend.

Drown was in on the surprise and she said Oliver called the office Friday morning to say she would be in Late. Drown advised her it would be OK to stay home and enjoy time with her daughters.

Oliver said after retirement, she and her husband Mike plan to visit both daughters more often and volunteer more at West Side Church of Christ.

Oliver and her husband are both “numbers” people or planners, but Oliver said retirement gives them the opportunity to be free from schedule and just pick and go whenever they want to.